A stone and steel sculpture, designed by Birmingham architect Alex Krumdieck, will be dedicated Sunday in memory of William Fallon Jr., Krumdieck's brother-in-law, and others who died on Sept. 11, 2001. (Brenda Fallon)

Like many Americans on Sept. 11, 2001, Alex Krumdieck was glued to his television.

The Birmingham architect watched from his office as one plane, then another, slammed into the towers at the World Trade Center.

Krumdieck’s brother-in-law, William Fallon, was a general manager for the New York Port Authority, working in the second tower that collapsed.

“My wife was in contact with her sister, who was also talking to him at the time, while he was in the trade building,” Krumdieck recalls. “He was helping to get people out of the building. When the first building collapsed, he began to evacuate from the other building, and that was the last communication we heard.”

Fallon was one of the nearly 3,000 people who died as a result of the terrorist attacks that day, and Sunday, on the 10th anniversary, he and others will be remembered with a stone-and-steel monument in Fallon’s hometown of Rocky Hill, N.Y. It was designed by Krumdieck at the request of his sister-in-law, Brenda Fallon.

“Brenda contacted me and said they were thinking about doing a memorial and were going to receive a piece from the towers to use in it,” says Krumdieck, of Krumdieck A+1 Design. “I did some sketches and sent them back to her. She submitted them ... and they reviewed it and decided to use it.”

For Brenda Fallon, it was especially poignant keeping the design of the memorial in the family.

“When Bill died, I asked Alex to design the gravestone in the Rocky Hill cemetery,” she says. “He did just a beautiful job of that. I’m just happy that the borough council also saw that talent and chose Alex’s design for the memorial.”

A stone sculptor, Steve Ferrari, created the memorial from Krumdieck’s design.

The memorial, which will be dedicated at Panicaro Park Memorial Garden Sunday at 12:55 p.m., consists of two parts. A stone pillar represents one of the towers, and a 7-foot steel beam from the World Trade Center site represents the other.

“It’s obviously been damaged from the heat and other things and is twisted, and because it’s bent, it’s actually warped and leaning on the stone pillar,” Krumdieck says. “It captures the violence that occurred on that day when the towers collapsed. It’s a piece of steel that has been twisted and scarred.

“You might read into it that the steel piece might be representative of all that survived and are still leaning on the memories of those who perished,” Krumdieck adds. “Or that we need to lean on our morals and our values.”

The steel beam has been left in its natural state with no protection.

“As the steel ages and is rained on, it’s basically weeping and the rust is going to stain the area that’s engraved,” Krumdieck says.

The engraving is a simple one:

“Dedicated to William F. Fallon Jr. and all who perished September 11, 2001.”

One portion of the memorial is directed specifically toward Chris, the Fallons’ 28-year-old son who had just entered Emory University when his father was killed.

“We’ll tell Chris about that part and no one else,” Krumdieck says.

Brenda Fallon has avoided being in the New York and New Jersey area on most 9/11 anniversaries, but “because of this great honor, I’m definitely here this year,” she says.

She’ll be joined by Krumdieck and other friends and family in Rocky Hill for the dedication ceremony.

“I’m honored to be a part of it, but it’s definitely brought back memories,” Krumdieck says. “It brought back everything of that day to life, and actually all the hurt that our family has experienced because of that event. It doesn’t leave us. It’s never left us.”